KZUM’s fall fund drive, Sept. 5-12, raised $34,912 in pledges from listeners! We’d like to sincerely thank each and every donor for supporting the station during the weeklong effort.

Even though the fund drive is done, we’re left with about $10,000 to raise by the end of the month to close the gap on our goal of raising $300,000.We hit $45,000 on Sept. 25 thanks to the incredibly generous support of KZUM listeners! The record number of donors this fiscal year has helped KZUM meet its funding goal of raising $300,000 locally for the second straight year, securing CPB funding for the station through 2019. On behalf of all KZUM volunteers, staff, board members and your fellow listeners: thank you to the best listeners in the world!

Sept. 30 marks the end of KZUM’s fiscal year, when the station must bank at least $300,000 from local sources to continue qualifying for a long-running grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The station must raise about $10,000 more to obtain about $72,000 in CPB funding through 2019. Failing to reach our goal will result in KZUM’s removal from the program and a stoppage to the grant that the station has counted on for over 15 years.

In 2014, noting that grant recipients needed to better prove viability in their communities, the CPB raised the required amount of funds that stations KZUM’s size must raise locally to continue qualifying for this Community Service Grant, from $100,000 to $300,000. In 2016, KZUM faced elimination from this grant program if it could not meet this new requirement — an amount the station had never come close to raising before.

KZUM listeners stepped up in a big way, getting the station to over $300,000 by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2016, and securing CPB funding through 2018. Some of the immediate things this revenue has helped achieve in the last year include the hiring of a new staff member, improved web hosting and equipment and support for our new internship program.

Raising this once unthinkable amount is KZUM’s new reality and we’re confident that the great partnership with our community and listeners will continue to help the station reach this annual goal that will contribute to continued growth and exciting new projects to even better serve Lincoln and beyond.

This year, we’re so close. Meeting our goal of raising $10,000 more by Sept. 30 will secure CPB funding for one more year. Falling short will mean eventual significant changes in KZUM’s funding model that would likely result in immediate roadblocks to continued growth. To be sure, the station wouldn’t go dark but would have to make serious choices that would impact the momentum that listeners have helped create these past couple of years.

For this kind of radio to work, we count on everyone who uses it to support it. Please give what you can now, here on our website, or by calling 402-474-5086, extension 1. Don’t leave it up to someone else to keep KZUM going. Do your part now and we’ll thank you with some sweet swag, detailed below in our thank-you gift levels.

You can track our progress right here on our website. Just look for the microphone icon on the right side of the page.

Thank you for supporting KZUM. The station would be nothing without you!